Sunday - December 28, 2008

Israel calls up reserve troops and sends tanks to Gaza border. Says fighting not over yet.

I read an article today that said even the police were now targets as anyone with membership in Hamas, was considered fair game.  Even those with no terrorist connections.  Very hard for me to imagine someone a member of Hamas and not having that connection.

Seeing this and other photos at the link has brought home to me just how far gone and how desperate things are over there.
I also don’t understand how it is that Arab countries haven’t been able to rein in Hamas in some way.  Somebody has to fund them. You don’t get rockets at a charity shop or the intl. Red Cross.

Is it at all possible that before this there might have been some, no matter how few, that had no personal stake and wasn’t anti Israel, who lost a family member who wasn’t a Hamas member, and is now committed to the fight?

Israel gave warning a week ago that it was not going to tolerate the continued rocket attacks against it’s population. 
Now the question is going to be, how far will the west allow Israel to go in defending itself.  That’s almost funny isn’t it?
Israel appears to be the only country in the world that might need permission from others to defend itself and defend it’s actions.

Israel calls up reserve troops and sends tanks to Gaza border after killing more than 280 in ‘one of the bloodiest days in 60 years’

By Jane Flanagan and Jonathan Petre
Last updated at 6:38 PM on 28th December 2008

Fears of invasion are growing after Israel called up thousands of reservists and moved dozens of tanks to the Gaza Strip border.

The move follows one of the bloodiest days in 60 years of conflict between the Palestinians and the Jewish state, in which more than 280 people in Gaza were killed.

Air strikes were launched on Gaza for a second day, piling pressure on Hamas, in what Israeli leaders said was a response to almost daily rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants following the end of a six-month ceasefire a week ago.

‘Right now, we are not considering an end to the fighting,’ Israeli Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel said on Israel Radio. ‘We have the time, patience and means ... to return life in southern Israel to normal.’

Medical staff struggled to cope with the wounded and dying flooding into hospitals in cars, vans and ambulances.

At Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s main medical amenity, beds ran out within minutes and bleeding bodies were lined up on the floors of the corridors as medics fought to help the most severe cases.

Some of the missiles struck in densely populated areas as children were leaving school and women rushed into the streets frantically looking for their children.

Mothers tried desperately to reach their children through the smoke that filled the streets, along with the sound of ambulance sirens and the cries of grieving relatives.

Shopkeeper Said Masri, 57, who sent out his nine-year-old son to buy cigarettes minutes before the air strikes began, sat in the middle of a Gaza City street close to a security compound, alternately slapping his face and covering his head with dust from the bombed-out building.

‘My son is gone, my son is gone,’ he wailed. ‘May I burn like the cigarettes, may Israel burn.’

Corpses rolled up in blankets filled hospital floors, awaiting identification.

‘We are treating people on the floor, in the corridors. We have no more space. We don’t know who is here or who to treat first,’ said one doctor.

MORE PHOTOS AND STORY

Posted by peiper     on 12/28/2008 at 02:05 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner